Nomination Letter
Dear Committee
We would like to nominate that John Evans be given Honorary Life Membership by the CBC.
John Evans has been a member of the CBC since July 2004.
According to Bilby, John has led 208 activities, but this is unlikely to capture walks led pre-Bilby. In any event, not only has he been an extremely active leader himself, he has done a huge amount of work in encouraging other members to become leaders.
John has been a committee member since September 2023, serving as Walks Secretary, which is a big role. He has undertaken that role with a great deal of passion and vigour, and the Club’s number of activities has increased as a result of his hard work. John has taken this role extremely seriously, and he is always very prompt with his replies and never hesitates to provide encouragement and assistance to all leaders.
There is no doubt that John has made a significant contribution on the Club’s behalf outside the Club. He has always sought to be involved with activities in our local parks and reserves. He has done radio interviews, assisted Bushwalking NSW, and many, many people outside the Club are aware of his Johhny Boy’s Walkabout Blog and the detailed information he provides there of his numerous walks over the years.
John Evans is a shining star in our Club, and it would be an honour for us to have him as an Honorary Life Member.
Could you please give this nomination your consideration?
Kind regards
Noelia P
Greg B
Supporting Letter
A lovely nomination from Noelia.
Bilby, of course, doesn’t capture John’s strong history with the Club. He was on the Committee pre-Bilby, for example.
He also contributed strongly to the implementation of Bilby, was a major tester for its features and continues to actively provide feedback to the developer to ensure it meets our needs as much as possible.
Cheers
@terrylea-hikergirl
Assessment Criteria
Active Membership
John joined CBC on 15 July 2004 after doing his first activity with the Club on 29 April 2004. He has been continuously active since then. He received the Greg Buckley Award in 2008.
Activity Leadership
John led his first Club walk on 22 October 2005.
Since joining the Club, John has programmed 605 activities of which 535 were completed; 70 activities were cancelled for various reasons. He has participated in a total of 1,151 activities, which includes those that he led.
Initiatives
1 January – 30 June 2023 – RU⇧4it – ‘Are you up for it’ challenge
This was a personal challenge for members and guests to bag 26 named hills/trigs in 26 weeks, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. Difficult letters, such as Q and X, gained walkers ½ a point if they could attend trips put on by leaders with those letters in their names. Ultimately, the letters H, I, V and Z defeated us.
5-6 March 2016 – Participating in CBR100 2016 with Club members, including training for the event
This event was a 100km route around Canberra in which people could walk or run. John led training walks for the event as well as participating in the event itself with a number of Club members.
1 March 2016 – 28 February 2017 – Step out and step up
This incentive program encouraged Club members to walk with at least 20 different walk leaders on CBC advertised walks from 1 March 2016 to 28 February 2017 inclusive. It provided the opportunity to meet new people and to visit new areas.
February 2016 – ACT Percys
An ongoing incentive program in 2016 that encouraged Club members to visit the ACT peaks over 1000m, which are known as the Percys. It was a personal challenge, with participants recording their tallies.
David Dedenczuk provided a list of the Percys with points for each peak.
1 March 2015 – 29 February 2016 – Totally Topo!
This incentive program was intended to promote activities in areas that Club members did not normally visit. The aim was to travel on foot (walk, ski, canyon, etc) on routes over as many maps as possible over 12 months.
Day and overnight categories were provided to improve the program’s fairness as well as ACT and
A target number of maps is provided for each category. The ACT is covered by 17 maps (but one area is inaccessible) so 16 is the target for this category. Some inventive routes may be required for a couple of the ACT maps to meet the distance or time requirements. As usual, all activities must respect requirements for entering private land or land with other entry restrictions.
2013 – Centenary of Canberra ‘Stretch your legs’ events
Two special events were organised by John in this centenary of Canberra year to encourage participation in Club activities.
- Walk with 20 different walk leaders in a year, and
- Visit 40 different ACT trigs in a year.
22 November 2010 – 6 November 2011 – 50 peaks in 50 weeks
The target for Club members was to ascend 50 or more peaks in the Club’s semicentennial year. Points were awarded based on the length and difficulty of the walk.
This idea was proposed by Janet Edstein with support from Terence Uren, with John writing the rules and getting the activity off the ground.
Long Time and Night Walkabouts and 24-hour Walks
Navigation Training (particularly with GPS)
John’s knowledge of navigation, particularly with the use of computers and GPS, was availed of in assisting Rob and Jenny Horsfield with that section of their navigation training course. He has also run short navigation training courses at various times.
Committee Service
| Position | Start | End | Years |
| Training and Safety Officer | 21/09/2011 | 17/09/2014 | 3 |
| Membership Secretary | 17/09/2014 | 16/09/2015 | 1 |
| Walks Secretary | 16/09/2015 | 20/09/2017 | 2 |
| Walks Secretary | 20/09/2023 | 17/09/2025 | 2 |
| Total | 8 |
Unifying and Positive Force in the Club
John’s unifying and positive force in the Club has been demonstrated over a long period in many ways.
He has implemented many initiatives, giving guests and members the opportunity to participate in longer-term activities with shared goals and achievements to look back on.
As both a leader and participant, John is generous with his time and knowledge to all, from the novice walker to the most experienced. He encourages everyone to get out in the great outdoors and has helped many learn new skills and mentored many new leaders.
As Walks Secretary, John implemented the monthly “Leaders Letters”, to share useful information with leaders, encourage them with ideas, and importantly to acknowledge all the individual leaders who contributed to the program over the preceding month and to profile new leaders. John also sends the Upcoming Activities email to all members, highlighting activities coming up and new activities added in since the last email. This is especially helpful to those who work or are otherwise busy, who tell us they are assisted by prompts to check what’s on, and it helps keep members actively engaged with CBC.
Community Contributions on CBC’s Behalf
Medal of the Order of Australia – on 25 January 2021, John was awarded an OAM for service to bushwalking and to the community.
Radio interviews – John is often called upon to contribute to conversations about walking in the outdoors and always takes the opportunity to encourage everyone to give it a go and explain the benefits of being a member of a club such as CBC.
Interaction with Tim the Yowie Man – keeping a high-profile member of the ACT community aware of CBC.
Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog – a resource of maps and information about well over a thousand walks undertaken by John, is well known in the walking community and used by both CBC members and non-members.
Assistance at various events that provide publicity for the Club and potential new members, such as ACT fairs and ACT Parks and Conservation events, including recently organising and leading walks to contribute to the 2024 Namadgi National Park 40th birthday celebrations.
Endorsed at the February 2025 General Meeting
Updated: 2026-04-15